Man found dead in Highland Park Starbucks restroom

Highland Park — A homeless man was found dead inside a Starbucks restroom early Wednesday evening, said officials with the L.A. County coroner’s office.

The man, 33-year-old Zachary Wayne Kiser, was unresponsive in the restroom of the Starbucks in the 6200 block of York Boulevard, said Ed Winter, assistant chief at the coroner’s office. Drug paraphernalia was also found in the restroom.

Kiser was pronounced dead at the scene at about 6 p.m. His death appears to be from a possible drug overdose, Winter said.

I watched the video that he posted on Facebook three days ago. He said hi to his kids, he described being stabbed with a beer bottle in Lancaster a few days or weeks ago after talking to someone else’s girlfriend, he described stolen goods that he had (a bunch of phones), he tossed around the “n” word (used it casually, not to refer to African-Americans), described his love-em-or-leave-em attitude in a crude way, said he wanted to stop doing drugs and get into a trade or maybe sell cars. Seems like a deeply troubled young man from a southern state. If the police had picked him up for the stolen property or for drinking in public, he’d still be alive today. But ultimately, there’s no way to save someone from himself.

The rest of his family isn’t homeless, not are we victims. Sounds like you have nothing else to do but judge others in the middle of the night. Continued and unrelenting ptsd, along with mental illness leads to self medicating and addiction. His children would welcome him to dinner. So would i, his mother. But there are no chances left. Let those with no Sun cast the first stone.

Please keep your comments civil and on topic and refrain from personal attacks. The moderator reserves the right to edit or delete any comments. The Eastsider's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy apply to comments submitted by readers. Required fields are marked *